transmetropolitan vol 1 back on the street warren ellis

Spider finds Fred Christ and has a brief interview with him where Spider basically eludes that Fred is puffed up with fake power and that the government is going to come down and stomp out this little movement of Freds. After Spider burns a transient guard in the eye with a cigarette, Spider notices how tense the Transient population is. Fred Christ’s base is located in the Angel 8 district of The City. In this case, adapting aspects of an alien species. The Transience movement being a subculture of body modification fetishists who use technology to change themselves to something resembling a new species. He is covering a pseudo-alien messiah named Fred Christ, as he represents the Transcience movement. Issue three of Volume 1 talks about Spider’s first story back into the throes of journalism. Spider is constantly reminded of why he hid in the wilderness and eschewed all human contact. However, The City is neither of those things. All of which sounds impressive when tempered with wisdom and ethics.

If you can dream it, and have the money, you can do it. The City, as it is referred to, is Id and hedonism run amok puked out in a cyberpunk Technicolor fever dream. Called back to finish his book deal with his editor, lovingly known as Whorehopper, he unwillingly reenters The City and society and is equal parts horrified and fascinated by it. It is written as Spider is getting his feet under him after a five-year voluntary sabbatical. The first six issues of the 60 issue story make up Transmetropolitan Vol. Describing him, he sounds like a lunatic when in actuality he is the reincarnation of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Often drawn wearing a pair of stereoscopic sunglasses, one red lens, and the other green while streams of smoke curl out of his nostrils and usually sporting a scowl of discontent while gesticulating wildly at the idiocy of passers-by. He is tattooed, brash, brilliant, sarcastic, caustic, drug-addicted, and a wild man of journalists fervor.

The story is built around the antics of our protagonist and antihero, an investigative journalist named Spider Jerusalem. Transmetropolitan was written twenty-one years ago, published by DC Comics between 1997 – 2002, but it might as well been written yesterday for how current and prescient it is.

Transmetropolitan vol 1 back on the street warren ellis